Australian iPhone 8 plans compared: what price should you expect to pay?

Because we've gotten so well adjusted to the release pattern for Apple's flagship smartphones, the potential announcement of the iPhone 8 has really rocked the boat, considering it could theoretically be a year early.

If you've been keeping track, there's been an incessant flow of rumours that suggest the iPhone 8 will be released to mark the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone. Alongside the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus, we're anticipating a release around October, or at least some time in spring. Everything so far suggests that the design will be quite a bit different to what we've come to expect from Apple thus far, with an almost all-screen face and some other tricks up its sleeve.

As per usual, Apple isn't letting anything slip when it comes to the finer details of the launch and the phone itself, and that includes the price. So naturally, our predictions are just that — predictions — but they are educated ones!

iPhone 8 price: how much will it cost?

Although Apple gave us a budget offering last year with the iPhone SE, don't expect anything quite like that with the latest iPhone. Everything so far is pointing to the iPhone 8 being the most expensive one so far, especially considering how experimental the design seems to be based on the rumour mill so far.

Based on the iPhone 8 leaks, it will likely have a 5.8-inch bezel-free display, which will bump up the hardware costs more than ever before. Taking into account that last year's 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus started at $1,269, you could safely add $200 and some change onto that price, and possibly even more. So based on this, we could be looking in the realm of $1,499, or perhaps even higher.

When can I buy the iPhone 8?

Not to follow in other manufacturers' footsteps (we're looking at you Samsung), Apple doesn't hype the technology press months and months in advance of its launches.

The typical pattern thus far has been for a new iPhone to release in September — this has been the case for the last five years — so even if we don't see the iPhone 8 as soon as that, we're keeping our eyes peeled for at least the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus.

Because the 8 seems to be a bit more of a wildcard, we're having a harder time saying when we think we'll see it. There are rumours suggesting it will launch alongside the 7S and 7S Plus, but others are also suggesting it could happen as late as November. Either way, we hope it will be in time for our Black Friday deals so we can take the edge off the likely-steep price.

TechRadar predicts the best iPhone 8 deal

Given the likelihood of a particularly pricey handset, most people are going to want to pick it up as part of a plan. Like the outright prices, we're expecting the plans to be steeper than the iPhone 7 Plus plans were to start with.

iPhone 8 | 2GB data | Unlimited calls and texts | $99pm
There's bound to be certain deals with specific carriers and networks on launch, but considering the cheapest current plan for an iPhone 7 Plus is around the $75pm district (and that phone is almost a year old now), we can't imagine that even the cheapest iPhone 8 plan will be much under $100. We're hoping this is a conservative estimate, but deep down we're concerned it'll be even more than this. Total cost over 24 months is $2,376

These price estimates are based off the iPhone 8 featuring different models based on storage tiers, and have been based off the lowest one. So with that thought, you will be paying exorbitant amounts for the bigger GB models and even more heinous prices for plans with decent inclusions like extra data.

As is usually the case, the blow will be softened if you can afford to buy the handset outright, although with the price of flagships growing nearer the $2,000 mark than the $1,000 mark, this prospect is becoming less reasonable.